Tag: doctor who

Last year, I did a collection of free cross-stitch patterns – and everyone loved it! I think that’s one of the most viewed posts on the blog. So, as a holiday treat, I’m going to share ten more awesomely nerdy cross-stitch patterns that are completely free! Simply click on the image for your desired pattern, and it’ll take you to the pattern’s website.

Since I got full-time at IT Training, I’ve been working on beefing up my professional wardrobe. And, well, my wardrobe in general. For those of you that know me, while I can be professional when I need to be, sometimes I want to have some fun with what I wear. And after doing some searching, I’ve found that there’s no shortage of work-friendly clothes that show off my nerdy and geeky side.

Star Trek TNG Sweater

This is one that I’d been wanting for quite some time. A comfy, casual Star Trek sweater? That I could wear to work? YES. I’ve worn this one to the office quite a few times, and every time I get compliments on it. (It doesn’t hurt that I work in the IT field, surrounded by Star Trek fans.) My boss calls it my “Picard sweater”. To be honest, though, I call it my Janeway sweater – I can totally see her wearing this when she’s off duty, drinking a large mug of coffee, maybe chatting with Neelix… One of the awesome things about this sweater is that it’s unisex, so it has sizes that fit anyone! Which is always awesome.

Star Trek TNG Sweatshirt

I actually snagged this one before my Command sweater, but it’s a bit more casual – something to wear to work on Fridays, as opposed to something I could show up to teach a workshop in. However, it’s still incredibly comfy, and after a few washes, it’s now the softest sweatshirt in my collection. I get compliments on this too – and a ham radio friend of mine says he’s using the Star Trek sweatshirts for Halloween for he and his wife. 😀 (He’s going as Riker, and she’s going as Troi from Season 2, episode 1 of The Next Generation, considering she’s having a baby herself! Now, that’s an awesome costume idea. 😀 ) Sadly, this sweatshirt does not come with a comm badge, but it’s not too hard to find one online to adorn your sweatshirt with.

Star Trek Command Insignia Skirt

This is one I don’t own yet, but I’m going to have to snatch up soon – I love the pattern, and I love that it has pockets. How many skirts out there proclaim they have pockets? Not many. I don’t think any of the skirts I own for regular use have pockets. Which is a bummer.

Captain Picardigan

This is a far more subtle Star Trek sweater that I’m going to have to add to my collection. I found this on Her Universe (a site I only recently discovered!), and I love that it includes the rank pips as well as the communicator badge. I do have a thing for cardigans, and I’m quite sure this one will end up in my collection sooner rather than later…

Union Jack TARDIS Skirt

You thought this entire post was going to be of Star Trek clothes, didn’t you? Well, I found a skirt on Her Universe that would also be office appropriate, but it’s got the TARDIS on it! And you can never go wrong with the TARDIS. Bigger on the inside, travels through time and space, makes a delightful skirt pattern…

Tiny Pinkie Pie Bracelets

I actually found these wee little ponies at Walmart, for $1 each! They’re so tiny that unless you look up close, you’ll never notice that they’re Pinkie Pie beads. You can find these at the jewelry counter, in a little box of all colored pony bracelets – I tried to find them online for everyone, but had no luck. (Plus, Walmart’s website kept crashing on my Chromebook, which is annoying.)

My Little Ties

For those of you who are of the tie-wearing persuasion… you can now wear pony ties, thanks to My Little Ties! Toothless is modeling the Pinkie Tie for me here, and there are plenty of others at My Little Ties. Ross has a few of these in the bow-tie version, but they make regular ties as well.

Hopefully these can give you some inspiration for showing your inner geek while you’re out and about!

Well, it only took me six months to do it this time – I finished my second Doctor Who scarf!

The scarf turned out pretty well, although there were a couple of hiccups along the way while making it, including…

It turns out I used the wrong size needles. for some reason I figured that I’d be using the same size needles as I used for Bryan’s scarf, but nope. I was wrong. I needed a size 9 needle – and used a size 6, and didn’t realized I was using the wrong needles until I was about five rows away from done. Not even kidding. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I may try to make a new one in the correct size… is that crazy?

Crocheting the edge was a bit tough, especially on the side that had all the color changes. The pattern didn’t exactly explain how to do it (“slip stitch crochet on right side only” is not quite enough detail – where the heck am I supposed to put that slip stitch?). I ended up just single-crocheting around the edge on the right side – it made the edge a little more obvious, which I was fine with, but I don’t know as it’s entirely show-accurate… The worst part was trying to wedge my crochet hook through the color changes – that side’s a bit messy because of that. It’s not horrible, but when it comes to my craft projects, I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

I am really sick of doctorwhoscarf.com changing their patterns every year! This happened when I was working on Bryan’s scarf, and it happened this time too – I inevitably lose the pattern somewhere, and then go to look it up online, and it’s completely different. While the change wasn’t so drastic with Bry’s scarf (it went from just a list of colors and rows to a graphical pattern), the change on my scarf was much harder to deal with – the maintainer of the patterns switched from counting each rib as a row, and listing the amount of ribs on each color span, to counting each individual row and therefore doubling the amount of “rows” in each span of color. It really threw me off, especially when I did my counting. Next time I do a scarf, I’m going to get in the habit of printing out a couple of copies and sticking the extras to my bulletin board, so I don’t have to switch to reading a pattern in a different format.

Aside from these issues, making the scarf was fun, and it kept me occupied during many long chilly nights of TV watching and gave me something to do while sitting through family gatherings and classes. I’m kind of sad that I’m done with it… and I’m considering taking on the task of making scarves for friends, should they want one. I’m starting to question my sanity, with that last bit, haha, but there’s nothing so soothing as knitting a nice, long, Doctor Who scarf!

I’m going to try something new for the next few weeks here, and see how everyone likes it – I’m going to do a nerdy craft roundup, of four of the most interesting nerdy crafts I’ve found out on the internet! Here’s hoping it brightens everyone’s Monday, and gives everyone some inspiration for some cool craft projects to make.

Books and Tardises bookmark cross-stitch pattern

This looks like a fun project for cross-stitchers, and would also be a great gift for any Doctor Who fan! It would also be a great weekend project, for when you’ve got some episodes of Doctor Who to catch up on. You can find it at The Crafty Companion on Etsy.